New Council members brush off Chamber of Commerce - Columbia ...

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12 April 16, 2011 Columbia Business Times | ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com From the Roundtable... continued from Page 8 and no longer pass through their city centers. Private capital now mingles with Réseau Ferré Français, the government entity that builds and maintains these lines while the départements traversed by the new lines increasingly balk at forking over their share of needed capital. That’s like asking Boone County for money; one wonders how far that would go. The French have one wild and wacky dream. And as much as I admire how other countries have attacked and executed their high-speed rail projects, here in the states we need to call a time-out for a serious reality check. What needs attention today is our infrastructure of deteriorating roads, highways and bridges. Think what the nearly billion dollars the governor wants to pry from the federal government for unrealistic passenger rail improvements could mean for our highways. Would someone tell the governor to drop this boondoggle? Then let’s start begging for our highways because they sure could use our help right about now. v The map above shows the extensive lines of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad in 1917. A project planned in 1933 for the shortest rail connection between Kansas City and St. Louis would have passed right through the Columbia area. Those plans, however, were squelched by the Great Depression.
housing market still dragging economy Post-recession, the positives are once again outnumbering the negatives in Jeff MacLellan’s annual report on the Columbia area’s economy. On the plus side in 2010: There’s strong population growth, continued college enrollment increases, an upturn in retail sales, a bit of a building rebound, a drop in unemployment from above to below 6 percent, relatively low cost of living, property values holding steady and extremely low interest rates. The population spike from the census-estimated 102,324 in 2009 to the census-verified 108,500 in 2010 must have been caused by an underestimate, MacLellan said. A net increase of 6,176 people, or 6 percent, is more than three times the typical annual rate during the past few decades. But there’s no doubt that the 28 percent jump in population since 2000 is good news for the local economy. On the minus side: The number of jobs dropped for the third straight year, foreclosures hit a record high, the number of houses sold dipped, the value of commercial building dropped to the lowest of the decade and the number of business licenses fell. Although there was a slight increase in home-building permits, “real estate is still in the dumper,” he said. (Last year at this time, MacLellan predicted that “any recovery in the housing market is likely to be prolonged.”) MacLellan, the semi-retired former chairman and CEO of Landmark, said there are also a few intangibles that are having both positive and negative impacts on the local business climate. The plus: Openings of the IBM Service Center and Linen King and the production expansion at 3M “has provided a psychological boost to the business community,” MacLellan said during an interview in his office. The minus: There’s uncertainty caused by the national deficit problem and a drop in consumer confidence. “People know we can’t keep spending at this pace,” MacLellan said. “The math doesn’t work.” With the uncertainty, business operators and consumers “are less likely to make commitments.” Then there’s what might be called the potential plus: Regional Economic Development Inc. has an extraordinary large list of pending deals, such as companies interested in locating a data center here, which could create significant numbers of jobs and tax revenue, according to MacLellan, who’s a former REDI chairman and has been on the board for about eight years now. “REDI is seeing more activity than it ever has,” he said. MacLellan has been charting the local economic indicators for nearly a quarter century now. Here are highlights of his latest compilation, put in perspective: Boone County’s Top employers in 2010 The economic downturn had a delayed impact on some public sectors, which held steady during the actual recession but had to reduce employment last year because of funding cuts. The public school system shed 12 percent of its workforce, and the state jobs based here fell about 7 percent. The county and the Post Office also had cutbacks. As pointed out last year in the CBT chart, the strength of higher education and health care helped minimize the local impact of the recession. After years of steady losses, manufacturing jobs rose in 2010 at Hubbell, Schneider and Frito Lay/ Quaker and are expected to rise significantly at 3M this year. The numbers collected by REDI don’t reflect the new jobs at the IBM Service Center, which is expected to jump into the top 30 next year. Companies with job growth greater than 10 percent in the past year included Columbia College and VA Mortgage Center, and the biggest gainer was Joe Machens, which joined the list this year because the dealerships were consolidated. v Dropouts in 2010: Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Employers Mutual Additions in 2010: CenturyLink, Joe Machens Dealerships * Includes MU, Extension and System employees. ** Excludes MU | n/l Not Listed *** ABC has added 48 employees since the survey Source: Regional Economic Development Inc. Full-time, benefited employees. Numbers provided by individual companies, government personnel offices\ and Harris Online Directory (Watlow) Households/Individuals Per House 2007....................40,856 ....................2.32 2008....................40,233 ....................2.38 2009....................42,143 ....................2.43 2010....................43,722 ....................2.48 (MacLellan said the rise in individuals per household might be a result of the economic downturn and “difficult job market,” as more young adults live at home while working. “We’ll see what happens when the economy improves.”) MU Enrollment 1997................................................22,500 2010................................................32,415 (There have been gains of 1,691, 1,553 and 1,101 in the past three years.) Retail Sales 2007....................................$1.88 million 2008....................................$1.84 million 2009....................................$1.92 million 2010....................................$1.97 million Labor Force (jobs in market) 2007................................................93,041 2008................................................92,747 2009................................................92,533 2010................................................92,484 Foreclosures 2008.....................................................307 2009.....................................................298 2010.....................................................347 EMPLOYER EMPLOYEES 1 YR CHANGE ’09 RANK 5-YR CHANGE 1. University of Missouri* 8,630 +85 1 +988 2. University Hospital & Clinics 4,279 +40 2 +727 3. Columbia Public Schools 2,140 -288 3 +110 4. Boone Hospital Center 1,647 -5 4 +313 5. City of Columbia 1,286 +1 5 +97 6. U.S. Dep. of Veterans Affairs 1,250 Same 7 +334 7. Shelter Insurance Companies 1,171 +76 9 +152 8. MBS Textbook Exchange 1,084 -185 6 +149 9. State Farm Insurance Cos. 1,043 -61 8 -36 10 Hubbell Power Systems Inc. 680 +90 11 -120 11. Joe Machens Dealerships 613 +45 ** n/l 12. State of Missouri ** 557 -54 10 +104 13. Kraft Foods Columbia 522 +19 12 -78 14. Columbia College 490 +67 13 +165 15. Boyce & Bynum Pathology Labs 369 -8 15 n/l 16. Boone County Government 365 -12 14 +8 17. ABC Laboratories Inc.*** 348 +18 17 n/l 18. U.S. Postal Service 341 -21 16 n/l 19. Columbia Insurance Group 324 +3 18 +50 20. Schneider Electric: Square D 300 +49 22 -1 21. MidwayUSA 294 +10 20 n/l 22. Boone County National Bank 275 +23 19 +10 23. Watlow Inc. 270 Same 21 -30 24. U.S. Dept of Agriculture 258 +11 24 n/l 25. MFA Inc. 250 Same 23 +9 26. VA Mortgage Center 249 +29 27 n/l 27. Frito-Lay/Quaker 240 +10 25 n/l 28. CenturyLink 230 +xx xx +16 29. Woodhaven 220 +7 28 n/l Business Licenses 2007..........................4,982 2008..........................5,008 2009......................... 4,933 2010 .........................4,859 Houses Sold 2005......................... 2,900 2006..........................2,301 2007..........................2,079 2008..........................1,715 2009..........................1,688 2010..........................1,634 Building Permits Total Value 2007.............$214 million 2008.............$144 million 2009.............$168 million 2010.............$128 million Commercial Permits Total Value 2008............$86.4 million 2009............. $111 million 2010............$58.6 million Boone County Property Total Market Value 2007............. $6.10 billion 2008............. $6.80 billion 2009............. $6.83 billion 2010............. $6.87 billion 30. 3M 210 -1 29 -366 13 April 16, 2011 Columbia Business Times | ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com
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New Council members brush off Chamber of Commerce - Columbia ...

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